The medical examination has answered one question about Saylor Hayes, but it may have made another one even more important: What happened during the final hours before the five-year-old was found in the water?

Saylor was reported missing from a vacation rental in the Hagley Estates area near Pawleys Island on August 30. The following morning, her body was recovered from the Waccamaw River near the family’s rental property.

The discovery brought an end to an intense overnight search, but it immediately began a much more difficult investigation into how Saylor ended up in the water.

The preliminary autopsy has now provided investigators with a significant medical finding. The Medical University of South Carolina examination identified pulmonary edema, or fluid accumulation in the lungs. No obvious trauma was found. Officials have said the finding is compatible with drowning, but the final cause and manner of death remain pending.

That wording is critical.

A finding consistent with drowning is not the same as a finalized determination that drowning was the official cause of death. Laboratory testing and additional review are still required, and the coroner has estimated that the final report may take eight to 10 weeks.

Meanwhile, investigators have been examining the circumstances surrounding Saylor’s disappearance.

Authorities say Saylor was nonverbal and had autism. She also had a history of wandering and an attraction to water, factors that investigators say made appropriate supervision and safeguards particularly important.

According to arrest warrants, Saylor’s parents were aware of those vulnerabilities. Investigators allege that they failed to provide the level of supervision and protection required for a child in those circumstances. The parents have been charged with unlawfully placing a child at risk and willfully abandoning her.

Another detail has become particularly significant: the Project Lifesaver transmitter ᴀssociated with Saylor was reportedly not with her when she disappeared.

Authorities say the device had been left in Virginia rather than being brought on the family’s South Carolina vacation. Investigators later located the transmitter in a vehicle at the family’s Virginia home.

The issue has generated intense scrutiny because search teams were initially told about the tracking technology. Authorities allege that this contributed to search efforts being directed away from the water.

But there is an important distinction between an investigative allegation and a proven fact. The parents have not been convicted of the charges, and investigators have not publicly concluded that the tracking device would definitely have changed the outcome.

That uncertainty is important as the case moves forward.

The parents were arrested in Tennessee on September 1 and subsequently extradited to South Carolina. A magistrate later denied bond, keeping both defendants in custody.

The case therefore now has several unanswered questions running simultaneously.

Why did Saylor leave the rental property? How long was she outside before anyone realized she was missing? How did she reach the water? Why was her tracking device not with her? What happened during the search? And, ultimately, what will the completed autopsy determine about the exact circumstances of her death?

For now, investigators have only part of the picture.

The preliminary medical findings point toward a possible drowning, but the final explanation for what happened to Saylor remains unfinished.

Source: NYpost